Francis was 13 years old, and living with his mother, maternal grandmother & aunt & his grandmother’s female ward. Francis & Alice are now using their surname Woods.

Lucy, 81 a widow, was kept by children.

Alice, 42, a Dressmaker for a Drapery.

Lucy, 45, helped at home. totally deaf.

Pomponia, 17, a Student.

Francis’s father, Edward William James Woods was a Tobacconists Manager in 1911, living at 39 Bulwer Street, Shepherds Bush, London. He was born in 1869, Ipswich. On Francis’s service record Edward is acknowledged as his father but as address unknown.

The Machine Gun Corps was formed in October 1915 as the machine gun proved to be held affective as infantry support in trench warfare. Cavalry and Motor branches, followed in 1916 by the Heavy Branch. A depot and training centre was established at Belton Park in Grantham Lincolnshire also a training base depot at Camiers in France .the men were trained to a higher technical standard, capable of stripping down and mending the guns in the field.

The Machine Gun Corps had 62,049 casualties, including 12,498 killed out of 170,500 officers and men earning it the nickname ’the Suicide Club’ manly as machine guns were static or fix positions becoming prime targets for the enemy.